Tricoordinated Single-Atom Cobalt in Zeolite Boosting Propane Dehydrogenation

Propane dehydrogenation (PDH) reaction has emerged as one of the most promising propylene production routes due to its high selectivity for propylene and good economic benefits. However, the commercial PDH processes usually rely on expensive platinum-based and poisonous chromium oxide based catalysts. The exploration of cost-effective and ecofriendly PDH catalysts with excellent catalytic activity, propylene selectivity, and stability is of great significance yet remains challenging. Here, we discovered a new active center, i.e., an unsaturated tricoordinated cobalt unit (≡Si-O)CoO(O-Mo) in a molybdenum-doped silicalite-1 zeolite, which afforded an unprecedentedly high propylene formation rate of 22.6 molC3H6 gCo-1 h-1 and apparent rate coefficient of 130 molC3H6 gCo-1 h-1 bar-1 with >99% of propylene selectivity at 550 °C. Such activity is nearly one magnitude higher than that of previously reported Co-based catalysts in which cobalt atoms are commonly tetracoordinated, and even superior to that of most of Pt-based catalysts under similar operating conditions. Density functional theory calculations combined with the state-of-the-art characterizations unravel the role of the unsaturated tricoordinated Co unit in facilitating the C-H bond-breaking of propane and propylene desorption. The present work opens new opportunities for future large-scale industrial PDH production based on inexpensive non-noble metal catalysts.

Highly dispersed Pd-based pseudo-single atoms in zeolites for hydrogen generation and pollutant disposal

Atomically dispersed metal catalysts with excellent activity and stability are highly desired in heterogeneous catalysis. Herein, we synthesized zeolite-encaged Pd-based pseudo-single atoms via a facile and energy-efficient ligand-protected direct H2 reduction method. Cs-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy, extended X-ray absorption, and pair distribution function measurements reveal that the metal species are close to atomic-level dispersion and completely confined within the intersectional channels of silicalite-1 (S-1) zeolite with the MFI framework. The Pd@S-1-H exhibits excellent activity and stability in methane combustion reactions with a complete combustion temperature of 390 °C, and no deactivation is observed even after 100 h on stream. The optimized bimetallic 0.8Pd0.2Ni(OH)2@S-1-H catalyst exhibits an excellent H2 generation rate from FA decomposition without any additives, affording a superhigh turnover frequency up to 9308 h-1 at 333 K, which represents the top activity among all of the best heterogeneous catalysts under similar conditions. Significantly, zeolite-encaged metal catalysts are first used for Cr(vi) reduction coupled with formic acid (FA) dehydrogenation and show a superhigh turnover number of 2980 mol(Cr2O72-) mol(Pd)-1 at 323 K, surpassing all of the previously reported catalysts. This work demonstrates that zeolite-encaged pseudo-single atom catalysts are promising in efficient hydrogen storage and pollutant disposal applications.

Reactivity of Single-Atom Alloy Nanoparticles: Modeling the Dehydrogenation of Propane

Physical catalysts often have multiple sites where reactions can take place. One prominent example is single-atom alloys, where the reactive dopant atoms can preferentially locate in the bulk or at different sites on the surface of the nanoparticle. However, ab initio modeling of catalysts usually only considers one site of the catalyst, neglecting the effects of multiple sites. Here, nanoparticles of copper doped with single-atom rhodium or palladium are modeled for the dehydrogenation of propane. Single-atom alloy nanoparticles are simulated at 400-600 K, using machine learning potentials trained on density functional theory calculations, and then the occupation of different single-atom active sites is identified using a similarity kernel. Further, the turnover frequency for all possible sites is calculated for propane dehydrogenation to propene through microkinetic modeling using density functional theory calculations. The total turnover frequencies of the whole nanoparticle are then described from both the population and the individual turnover frequency of each site. Under operating conditions, rhodium as a dopant is found to almost exclusively occupy (111) surface sites while palladium as a dopant occupies a greater variety of facets. Undercoordinated dopant surface sites are found to tend to be more reactive for propane dehydrogenation compared to the (111) surface. It is found that considering the dynamics of the single-atom alloy nanoparticle has a profound effect on the calculated catalytic activity of single-atom alloys by several orders of magnitude.